The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-08-25

than these living effgies of mediocrity,
which thirty years ago she would not have
deemed fit to tie her shoe string.
States have their rise and fall no less
than men, and Virginia, having stated
herself with honor and fame, has gone to
sleep, leaving only bats and owls to watch
over her through the night!
II.
The Lone Star Texas, on the other hand
by the defeat of Prohibi-
ton, has rescued herself from very great
peril. No matter who is responsible for
the overwhelming majority, nor who com.
posed the vote against Prohibition, its
defeat is distinctly Democratic
victory. The effort of the party
to strip the question of its political re-
lations, and to convert it into a horse
which democrats could ride double, was a
weak concession to time-serving. OF all
the assertions and assumptions of the pa
ternal theory of government prohibition
is the most pervasive, and seizes upon the
rights of the individual most violently.
OF all schemes of moral emancipation
and reform, prohibition is the most illu-
sorry. No man who believes in prohibi-
ton can believe in self-government 1t
is fanaticism as wild and unreasoning as
voodooism itself.
That thousands of well-meaning Chris
tian men are deceived by it is true, and, to
the extent of their delusion, they are to
be pitied; but, in proportion as they be-
come aggressive and intolerant, must
their acts be resisted and their ideas ex-
posed.
Prohibition, to begin with, does not,
will not and can not prohibit. That drink
is the parent of tive.sixths of the evil IN
the world, believe; and if L could annihl-
late drink, and all other forms of stimula-
tion, L would. 1t is impossible. One
might as well undertake to abolish fire or
water. The only effect of the enactment
of laws attempting it, is to increase the
poison in drink, to multiply outlaws and
to manufacture hypocrisy. Waving the
political question involved, prohibition is
device of the devil to ensnare innocent
souls. 1t is particularly so with respect
to women. 1t was devised and meant by
Satan to lure them to destruction.
1t is the woman who most suffers from
the evil consequences of drink. 1t is she
must sit with folded hands whilst the
drinking husband slowly staggers down
the abyss before him. 1t is she must toll
to get living for helpless little ones,
whilst the brutal husband spends his all
at the dram shop. 1t is she, at last, who
falls beneath the cruel blows which drink
inficts upon ALL but chief and worst upon
the weak and poor. May heaven blight
this pen and wither the hand that holds
it if they should indite line or word not
instinct with sympathy for her and
hatred for the arch-fend, her oppressor,
and scorn of the selfish beast who becomes
that arch-fiend's agent. = But the devil
knows very well that prohibition does not
prohibit. He has the souls of the
drunkard safe in his lookup. How
shall he get at the soul of the wife! There
is but one way; entice her, under the pre-
tense of great moral work, into politics;
arouse her emotional nature intoa frenzy
of political excitement; lure her away
from home into public organization; make
a man of her, in short, and then go for
her as the devil goes for men, whom he
has filled with another kind of stimulant.
1t Is the same old story.
But the honest, impetuous prohibition
1st Will say, What may we dO--must we
sit down helpIessly and see all this in
putty go on before our eyes?" Most GER
tainly not. Begin the work of reform by
Furnishing crime, and particularly crime
the offspring of drink, more sys-
tematically. Bring the sale and
use of intoxicants under the better
regulation of the law. Surround. it
with all possible and needful safeguards.
Inculcate principles of moderation and
trust to the force of temperance and the
progress of enlightenment. Don't hurt a
noble and benefcent cause by trying to
do what cannot be done, and rushing
headlong into evils greater than those you
seek to compass. You fly into too great
a passion to do any real or lasting good.
This is eminently question to be rea-
soned with and to be considered from an
intelligent, even scientific, standpoint.
The small vote received by Judge Fox
is encouraging to the friends of tenn
uerance. 1t shows that in Kentucky there
is a sound, conservative view, which can
be relied on TO save us from crazy expedi-
ents, but which, I hope and believe,
will prove equal 10 dealing wisely